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How to keep gray water from coming up into tub?

StarkNaked
Explorer II
Explorer II
What do you do to keep gray water from coming up into the bathtub when you have to drive to the next dump station?

I tried buying a tapered rubber plug, but it's designed to keep water from going down the drain, not water coming up. With the shape of the taper, it just gets pushed up and out of the drain.

Have any of you come up with a good solution to keep water from coming up into the tub when you're driving on a curvy road?
52 REPLIES 52

cummins2014
Explorer
Explorer
ScottG wrote:
cummins2014 wrote:
ScottG wrote:
LouLawrence wrote:
Dumping Grey water is legal (and sometimes encouraged) in many States and localities.


X2. My State of Washington is one of them.


Maybe the shower ,and bathroom sink, but kitchen doubtful , Arizona allows the shower , and bathroom sink , but not the kitchen.


According to the people who write EIS's, there is no distinction.


For Washington, or Arizona ? Sure makes sense on the kitchen gray water , it can be nasty.

Bobbo
Explorer II
Explorer II
One of the things that we do to conserve grey tank capacity is use Dawn Powerwash to wash our dishes as it requires no water, then rinse them off with the outside shower. That puts zero water in the grey tank while doing dishes.
Bobbo and Lin
2017 F-150 XLT 4x4 SuperCab w/Max Tow Package 3.5l EcoBoost V6
2017 Airstream Flying Cloud 23FB

What the heck do all the tent cameras do when they wash their utensils, plates, canteens, whatever,???WHat about when they clean themselves?? They let the grey water flow down hill.... Its only GREY WATER after all, NO sewage.... DO I drain it on the ground, I've done that once or twice but MOST of my camping here on the East Coast is in RV Parks with full hook ups or dump stations...
Me-Her-the kids
2020 Ford F350 SD 6.7
2020 Redwood 3991RD Garnet

ScottG
Nomad
Nomad
cummins2014 wrote:
ScottG wrote:
LouLawrence wrote:
Dumping Grey water is legal (and sometimes encouraged) in many States and localities.


X2. My State of Washington is one of them.


Maybe the shower ,and bathroom sink, but kitchen doubtful , Arizona allows the shower , and bathroom sink , but not the kitchen.


According to the people who write EIS's, there is no distinction.

cummins2014
Explorer
Explorer
ScottG wrote:
LouLawrence wrote:
Dumping Grey water is legal (and sometimes encouraged) in many States and localities.


X2. My State of Washington is one of them.


Maybe the shower ,and bathroom sink, but kitchen doubtful , Arizona allows the shower , and bathroom sink , but not the kitchen.

ScottG
Nomad
Nomad
LouLawrence wrote:
Dumping Grey water is legal (and sometimes encouraged) in many States and localities.


X2. My State of Washington is one of them.

rk911
Explorer
Explorer
LouLawrence wrote:
Dumping Grey water is legal (and sometimes encouraged) in many States and localities.


can you provide a list or link to those states?
Rich
Ham Radio, Sport Pilot, Retired 9-1-1 Call Center Administrator
_________________________________
2016 Itasca Suncruiser 38Q
'46 Willys CJ2A
'23 Jeep Wrangler JL
'10 Jeep Liberty KK

& MaggieThe Wonder Beagle

Michelle_S
Explorer III
Explorer III
What do you think Tent Campers do with their waste water??
2018 Chevy 3500HD High Country Crew Cab DRW, D/A, 2016 Redwood 39MB, Dual AC, Fireplace, Sleep #Bed, Auto Sat Dish, Stack Washer/Dryer, Auto Level Sys, Disk Brakes, Onan Gen, 17.5" "H" tires, MORryde Pin & IS, Comfort Ride, Dual Awnings, Full Body Paint

LouLawrence
Explorer
Explorer
Dumping Grey water is legal (and sometimes encouraged) in many States and localities.

cummins2014
Explorer
Explorer
Grit dog wrote:
Well, I was gonna suggest, if you’re camped in an appropriate spot, dump the gray out. In the woods, in a ditch, in a field, etc. Not thru the neighbors campsite and their outdoor carpet.
If one can have a little common sense, it is easy to dispose of gray water responsibly and unnoticed. Just need enough garden hose to get it where you need it.
Heck we spend 1-2 weeks in the same popular (relatively crowded) private park every year. I’ve disposed of well over 500gallons of gray, unnoticed by anyone. How do I know? Because the next morning I can’t tell, myself.
Sorry if that gets anyone’s feelers all wadded up. But if one has enough IQ to function normally, one also has the ability to lose some gray water without making a mess, harming anything or upsetting anyone.
If not, then drive to the dump station I suppose.


Yup , key word responsible . That’s why it’s illegal for you , and anyone else to dump ANY RV holding tanks on the ground . Thank goodness there’s only a few like you that do . I also suspect there’s more than just the gray tanks emptied.

Little curious about your black tank , care to say how you handle that on a two week stay .

TCBear
Explorer
Explorer
A few others have mentioned transferring graywater to the black tank via diversion valves, a pump, and such. Surprised it wasn't explicitly mentioned (too obvious to mention?), but of course one could tansfer gray to black by old-school dumping a few buckets of drained graywater down the toilet.

MFL
Nomad II
Nomad II
IMO, a bit of difference between galley gray water, and shower gray water. My FW, as I'm sure many others, have at least 3 tanks. Mine are all 40 gal tanks, and I can empty my shower water separately. I have a cap, with a garden hose attachment that could be used for this.

Several rustic CGs that I enjoyed staying at were very limited on sewer use. The owners said shower water could be slowly drained in a private ditch, well behind the camper. I am thinking they did not tell everyone, but likely someone they considered responsible. I can't remember if I ever used that option??

Jerry

wildtoad
Explorer II
Explorer II
How long is the dump tube? Could put a new dump valve on the end of the tube, then open the gray tank valve which would fill the dump tube. This should perhaps remove enough gray water to avoid back filling into the shower. Otherwise buy a gray tote small enough to easily handle till you get to a dump station.
Tom Wilds
Blythewood, SC
2016 Newmar Baystar Sport 3004
2015 Jeep Wrangler 2dr HT

TCBear
Explorer
Explorer
And a graywater tank is also essentially vented via the kitchen and bathroom sink drains as well (the sink drain traps stop odor passage). Definitely not a "sealed" system you can pressurize, at least not that I can foresee.

TCBear
Explorer
Explorer
I think it's safe to say that an RV wastewater tank and related plumbing are designed to withstand being fully filled and driven to a very distant RV dump station with no damage whatsoever. Otherwise you'd see failures routinely, and there'd also be a warning in your RV owner's manual. And like home sewage plumbing, RV wastewater tanks are normally (or at least often) vented via pipe to the RV roof for odor minimization, so I don't know that graywater "overpressurization" is even possible.

As for dumping graywater on the ground, I'll defer to "Just because you can get away with something doesn't mean you should."